Why Architecture Matters after Sept. 11

I grew up in the suburbs of Manhattan in Long Island.  A trip to New York City was about as foreign an adventure as one could hope to have.  I remember taking the Long Island Rail Road into Penn Station and looking out the window the whole time. Right before you take the final plunge into the tunnels of  New York, there is this moment that you can see the skyline .  I remember being 12 years old and looking at that skyline thinking how impossibly tall the Twin Towers seemed. It would be many years later that I stood at the base of those buildings and looked up watching the towers disappear into the sky.

On September 11, 2001 I was a young architect working in Manhattan for a large design firm.  Most of my clients were financial firms in lower Manhattan and I would routinely take the Path train in from Hoboken, where I was living at the time.  On that day, I would have been coming up from the Path around 8:45 AM if not for a last minute schedule change that put me in Midtown instead.  I remember coming up from the N/R subway line and seeing crowds around the TV's in the lobby of the GM Building.  The rest, as they say, is history.  I spent the better part of the day walking all over Manhattan trying to get back to New Jersey. I made it as far south as 14th street and as far north as 96th street. I watched ash covered people emerging from downtown as a chimney cleaner would emerge out of a chimney.  The loss of human life was incomprehensible.  It's the kind of thing you never quite get over.  Even 10 years later, the loss that we feel for those who died cannot be repaired.  Not with a memorial.  Not with the death of any terrorist leader.  Not with the sacrifice of thousands of others.  It will never heal.  Unlike Pearl Harbor, this attack was right in our face, in the wide open space of a beautiful morning and broadcast internationally for everyone to see.  It's not the kind of thing people will laugh about in 30 years.  It's the kind of thing that stirs up the same emotions every time you think about it.

I don't know if it's because of my career or my personality, but I have always felt that the best tribute to those who died would have been to build those buildings back, exactly as they were.  I mean no disrespect to the families of the victims by saying this.  I realize that there were many bodies that were never recovered and those families will never be made whole again.  But I also believe that those buildings represented more to our country than just steel and glass. When built, they were innovative, iconic, and symbolic.  They represented the greatness of American engineering and were incredible works of Architecture.  There are few buildings that have been built in NYC in the last 40 years that could be identified by the average person on the street.  A visit to the top of the World Trade Center was nothing short of magical.

Architecture is not exactly America's national past time.  There are few notable structures that really influence people's lives.  The destruction of life on Sept. 11 was irreplaceable.  The destruction of Architecture was replaceable.  I can't think of any better symbol of American resolve and unity than to put those buildings back exactly as they were.  It would have sent a message to the world that we will get back up.  And in that ascension we will heal together.  As far as I know they did not leave a big hole in the Pentagon.   I think the memorial that was built is moving and elegant.  I also think that it would have been just as elegant if it were a few blocks south.  To visit the site of the former World Trade Center a decade later and be staring at two holes in the ground only makes me feel sad. And while that might be the desired result, I don't want to feel sad anymore.  I would rather feel inspired and proud.  I think that Architecture could have done that.  I think that Architecture can do that.  I think Architecture has to aspire to that, otherwise what's the point?